Changing the Craft Room Again

While trying to cut out the fabric for the aprons recently I realized I need more room in the sewing craft room. Love Bunny was not happy with my decision because that meant he had to take out another shelf in the dining area and drag that vintage desk out there. That's what he's FOR!! DUH.

While doing this I also decided to straighten the fabric again. I seem to have to do this every six months or so. Sigh... I have fabric I'll probably never use unless I open an apron shop and start making them to sell. I really don't want to do that but it may become a necessity since I'm making so many lately. I enjoy it and I only do what I enjoy now. I'm an ol' lady, ya know. ;-)

So since I'm not going to be refinishing this desk any time soon I decided to cover it with a vintage wilendur tablecloth. So this is how it will remain for a while. I really like the desk near the kitchen in that little part of the dining area.

Looking good so far, chicks.

But during that time I decided I wanted another mouse pad. One that was shabby chic with roses on it. I found the perfect ones on eBay and the woman was here in my town! Now, let me tell you there aren't too many women in the state of Idaho who are into shabby chic! Trust me. She definitely agreed with me. This woman came over after her day job and delivered it to me because she wanted to see my home. I was thrilled to show it to her and as she said (and I've always told you) it looks even better in person. She just moved into a new rental house and it is freshly painted yellow. Now, she's also a pink person and wants to repaint it again if they allow her. She is having a very rough time with the yellow walls throughout the whole house. I would too!! She's a shabby chic aficionado also and told me about a place in Eagle (near to me) and I plan on going over there some day soon. I'll keep you briefed on it when I do make it over...with my camera, of course.

Anyway, I needed 2 mouse pads - one for my desktop and one for my laptop. Are these not cute?!?!?! Squeeeeeeeal. So if you want to visit with her and buy some adorable mouse pads for your desk, check Lisa out on eBay or Etsy and tell her Connie sent you over. ;-)

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Camping In The Wilds Of Idaho Sept 2009

Since some of you might have missed this post I'm going to add it a few times to the beginning of some of my posts so I can get the word out. If any of you want to publicize this fact then be my guest in using these instructions or sending bloggers here to learn how to do this. I would love to be able to answer questions bloggers ask me by just clicking on their emails and returning it.

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Things I learned during our 4 days in the "wilds of Idaho":

I found out why our ancestors life expectancy wasn't very long: they lived like campers.

And my "essentials" for the trip were moisturizer, toothbrush, water pic, sunglasses and books!

My nails were completely destroyed.

Love Bunny "watered" every tree in camp.

Our "physiology" sure does change when we don't have regular toilets available.

The small fridge in the pop-up camper doesn't necessarily work in the woods as it does when sitting at home in the driveway.
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Yesssss, he did it again: dragged me kicking and screaming to the Sawtooth mountains again. The Sawtooths are part of the Rockies and just absolutely gorgeous. It's about 120 miles north east of us through some gorgeous mountains but I hate mountain roads. But on one stretch out in the middle of nowhere they were working on the mountain road and had a temporary red stop light up there. I shot this photo through the windshield as we sat there waiting for the traffic to finish coming around the mountain from the opposite direction.

Here we are in the camper I've started froufrou-ing up. I have the cushions covered and have some pretty throw pillows. Notice the Wilendur roses tablecloth on our little table. Very pretty for the woods.

I have a glut of purple plastic plates I bought years ago at WM for about 50¢ a piece so I took some out of the kitchen and put them in the camper.

Next year when we go I plan on having that bed behind the table and seats covered with a sheet. It's another bed but since just the two of us go there is no need to use it as a bed so we make it the storage area. Notice the portable flush toilet under the table. It's supposed to go outside during the day and come in at night but got shoved back in there for a while. We had a couple arrive in a camp spot about the space of 5 houses in our neighborhood so they weren't too close but they had dirt bikes and a radio that we had the pleasure (???) of hearing their beat to the songs for 2 days. Oh, and their bikes seemed to rev up at about 10:30 at night. But, hubs had a nice relaxing time so it was worth not getting any sleep at all. Sigh.... Oh, the couple also made some ice cream with their GENERATOR and brought us down some dishes with vanilla ice cream in it. Imagine, a generator at a camp sight!!!

Here's Love Bunny fixing the awning over the front of the camper. We put a little braided rug by the front door and some animal kept trying to steal it for 2 nights so the 3rd night we brought it in the trailer.

Rose Cottage Camper Birdhouse had center stage, of course.

We woke up to this gorgeous sky sunday morning. Beautiful wispy clouds with the bluest sky I've ever seen.

This is right by our camp site. We could get water out of there for washing our hands and dishes after we heated it up. Rapids are down this time of year and not as noisy as they were in July.

This is standing near the tree on the left in the picture above it and looking at our car, camper and screened in dining canopy. Some flies and other viciousness insects were up there.

Looking right down the little path by our campsite. We got water for washing in that little pool, but I'm gonna tell ya that water was COOOOOLD.....very COLD!

Hubs hauling up some water for washing dishes.

I also brought along some fabric to cut out some patterns for aprons while up there. I can't just sit around and do nothing, chicks. Anyway, I hope to have these done within the next couple of weeks and may, just may, sell some of them. We'll see. But they will be froufrou-y and pretty. Who knows? Maybe I'll give one away on th' blog. Hmmmmm, maybe ya better stay tuned.
This view was in the morning with campfire smoke drifting through this little valley and looking at the gorgeous Sawtooth mountains.

And on the way home we saw this little train that gives tours through the mountains on sundays. It's at HorseShoe Bend, about an hour or so from us. I'm going to see if Love Bunny will take me soon.

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Lunch with the Chicks at Cafe de Coco #4

Jeanne is having a giveaway so please go visit with her and try to win her surprise.

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Since some of you might have missed this post I'm going to add it a few times to the beginning of some of my posts so I can get the word out. If any of you want to publicize this fact, then be my guest in using these instructions or sending bloggers here to learn how to do this. I would love to be able to answer questions bloggers ask me by just clicking on their emails and returning it.

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We come to the different little dining areas in the bistro.

Each little table has a different fabric tablecloth but they are all roses or toile.

You truly feel as if you are on the sidewalks of Paris. Quaint little antique lamps on each table adds a sense of intimacy.

A little french "window"!

I don't think any two table were alike though. Just darling.

And this concludes our tour of our little french bistro in our small town.
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Polka Dots Are Back for Pink Saturday 9/12/09

Welcome to Pink Saturday. To view all the participants, go visit Beverly at How Sweet The Sound and surf around. I promise you'll see lots of pink!
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I've been asked to teach a class to a few women in my church ward on apron making on a "homemaking" saturday soon. I wondered why. I'm not especially into this activity but I figure it's "service" to teach them, but it's not so much "how" to sew—I'm assuming if they attend the class they should already know pretty much how to sew—but the "design" of aprons. Many you see can be boring. I don't do "boring" much; I like pizzazz much, much better!

So I've spent the last several days cutting out fabrics to form aprons. So far I've cut out 8 different aprons. I use several different kinds of fabric but they are usually (okay, always!) girly and froufrou-y and in colors I like because if I don't sell them, I keep them or give them away as presents or on my blog as "giveaways."

As you can see polka dot make up a few of them. I'm partial to polka dots, checks, stripes and roses fabric in them. For a couple of years now I've not been able to find much in the way of polka dots but this year there are a lot of them. I was so excited I bought yards and yards of red, black and pink polka dots. (I think I'm starting to sound like Lawrence Welk here. Polka?!) Anyway, here are a sampling of the ones I've cut out so far.

I absolutely love cutting them out; it's just relaxing to me to figure out which fabric goes with which other fabric.

Trims are another thing I do a lot of. I like "fluff and foof" in them. Ribbon roses, lace, little trims, buttons.

I do NOT use colors I don't like. Orange is my least favorite color. (Maybe that's why I'm not into fall colors much.) If I don't sell it then I get to keep them and I don't have orange in my house. Okay, okay, there might be a pumpkin or a blouse with a fragment of orange but that's it. And on some people it looks fabulous—NOT ME. Orange affects me negatively. Don't know why—just do not feel good around it.

The straps haven't been cut out yet and I usually use scraps for these so there may be 4 or 5 different kinds of fabric in one apron. One I made had 11 different kinds of fabric. I'll never part with that apron. I love it. Of course, when I die, my daughter will probably sell it on eBay for 1¢ with free shipping!

See that one in the middle? That top fabric is Paris Bebe and the bottom is an expensive "embroidered" silky type fabric. I think it'll be the most gorgeous one when they are all finished.

Some of these have the french look about them. Only one in the pile has the same fabric on top and bottom but the pockets will be different. I like to visualize as I go along after selecting the fabric.

But every single one of them, while pretty, is also functional. "Form follows function" in my book. They need to do the duty for which they were made and an apron by definition protects our clothing from spills and with that in mind, every single one of them is washable.

Oh, and there will be a giveaway with one of these being the prize. It'll happen soon. I'm almost at my 700th post and that will be the "giveaway post" so stay tuned to win one of them.

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Tutorial for Your Commenting on Blogger

I wish to bring something up that is very important and most of you probably don't think about or maybe not even know about.

When you leave a comment and the person you are leaving the coment for is notified it is usually a "noreply-comment@blogger.com" with your own name in the address field. Sometimes there is a question for me and I have to seek out your blog to answer it. While going to your blog is not a problem as I love visiting your blogs and leaving comments I'd prefer to respond to some things privately and if your email address isn't there I can't do that. So here is what you can do to assure that if you'd like. I'm putting this in my tutorial on the right hand sidebar if you care to go there. It's a pretty basic and easy tutorial for those who wish to learn about blogging. The blogs are ever changing though so I keep updating it as concerns appear or are asked of me to explain to someone. This is only if you want to, but trust me, it is much easier to reply to someone when their email address shows up. I have several emails so this is not a problem for me. Do as you wish though. Plus I want to give Jodie at JodieLejeuneblogspot credit for bringing this up. Thank you, Jodie!

To remedy this situation do this:

Go to your settings in blogger. See screenshot below:

Go to your settings. It can be done by clicking on New Post from your blog and the screen below will show up. (I've blotted out privacy things that might jeopardize my security.) AND you will have to enlarge these screenshots if you want to view them properly.

Screenshot #16:

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Go to your Settings in blogger. Then go to Comments. See pix below. A continuation of that site is below on Screenshot #18 as I could not get it all on one screenshot.

Screenshot #17:

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Put your address where it says "Comment Moderation" and Email address. Be sure and click "SAVE SETTINGS" at the bottom of the page and you are all set.

Screenshot #18

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